Art of making ice.



W. S. OSBORNE.

ART OF MAKING ICE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 21, 1911.

1,104,920. Ptented Ju1 2s,1914.

lzw li/v'l'olc 74mm)? 6'. Osborne specification.

' of which is at or below the freezingpoint,

. measured quantityjof frozen particles are compress thefrozen articles-, w ith or with resulting frozen particles are subjected to air is blown into contact with appropriate "fan, so that the air is utilized repeatedly in her; third, {a desired quantit of the frozen particles into cakes is carried" on at intervals,"

STATES PATENT ()FFIOE.

ILLIAM s. osnonnn or'nnw YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE o'sBonNE rnrnn'rnn macnmnnr (10., me, A conrona'rron on NEW YORK. I

ART OF MAKING ICE.

Letters Patent.

Application filed September. 27, 1911. Serial No. 651,624.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM OSBORNE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the. city of New York, borough of Manhattan, county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Art of Making Ice, of which, the following is a This invention is a process of making ice involving a certain novel mode of (procedure by whichgcakes of ice may be pro uced eco nomically and in less time than is required in the manufacture of ice by the so called plate and can systems.

According to this invention, water is sprayed into an atmosphere the temperature thus resulting in a rapid congelation of the small drops of water, converting the same. into ice, and then a certain volume of the pressure for the purpose of compressing the same into a cake.

At present, my referred mode of procedure involves the ollowing steps; first, the

cooling coils and exhausted from a congeah' ing chamber by theoperati-on of an exhaust the operation of freezing the drops of water; second the frozen particleswhlch are pre-' cipitated through the atmosphere in the congealing chamber are collected in a com are; ment at. the base of said congealing c "amparticles is drawnfoif and supplied into-a mold or compression chamber; fourth, the

subjected to compressionfbetween a follower and 'the'piston of a hydrauli'cpress so as-to out the addition o ':a small quantity of water, into a compact relativelysolidcake or charge of ice; and, finally, this-cake; is exelled from the mold or pressure chamber. The operations of compressing the" frozen or intermittently, but the steps-of freezing shower within the cooling chamber is carried on rapidly and economically.

diagrammatically one form of apparatus suitable for carrying out my process.

, The apparatus shown embodies a tower 5 of suitable height and diameter. Said tower provides a vertical elongated congealin chamber 6, the lower part of said tower duce a tapering chamber 7 at the bottom of the congealing' chamber. The top of the end of the tower is connected a suction pipe 9, the latter extending downwardly toward the base of the tower. This suction.pipe communicates with the intake to air exis connected with the lower part of the congealing chamber.

'At or near the tributing chamber '11, to which chamberis connected a pipe 12 whereby the air-from the exhauster forced into the distributing municates with the lower part of the congealing' chamber by openings 13, a number of said openings being provided'in the wall of the tower, for the purpose of feeding air uniformly into the lower part ofthe congealing chamber. The air is circulated by the fan through the tower for the purpose of establishing an upward flow of'pold air through the congealing chamber, the air pressure.

' art thereof is a sprayer 14 of any suita'le orm, and to this sprayer is conne'cted'a liquid supply pipe 15, the latter acting to supply wateror other liquid in the required upper part of the cooling chamber,'the drops The drawing herewith annexed illustrates belng contracted in diameter so as to prochamber. The distributing chamber com-- being supplied at a certain predetermined Positionedwithin the tower at the up er.

of water falling through the cooling chain Patented Juiyzs, 1914.

ried on continuously, thus .resulting in a novel mode of procedure which can be can tower is closed at 8, and to this closed upper hauster 10, the outlet from which exhauster:

base of the tower is a disvolume to the sprayer. Said sprayer dischargesthe water-in a shower within the 95.

ber and meeting the'u' wardl flowing cur;

rent of-cold ir, where y the ops of was are congealed as they fall through the tower,

thus resulting in artificially frozen hail or ice'particles.

Suitable means-are provided for cooling the air to the required low temperature before it flows into the congealing chamber of the tower. Various forms of refrigerating mechanisms may be employed for this purpose, but a simple structure which is economical in operation is shown in the drawings. To the pipe 12 between the air exhauster and the distributing chamber is conneoted a tank 16 within which is positioned a coil 17 throughwhich coil is adapted to gealing chamber. To this end, a dehydrator 19 of suitable construction is positioned intermediate the exhaust fan and the upper part of the tower, said dehydrator being so constructed as to bring the air drawn from the top of the tower into contact with the cold surfaces of the dehydrator, for the urpose of condensing upon said cold sur aces some of the moisture present in the cold air.

Below the tower and in communication, therewith is a column or stand pipe 20, the upper part of which is adapted to form a mold or compression chamber 21. Within the stand pipe below the compression chamber operates a platen 22 of a suitable compress, the latter being preferably in the form. of a hydraulic press, the plston of which is indicated at 23. 24 designates a I pressure head which is adapted to be placed in position between the mold or compression chamber 21 and the cooling chamber 7, (in;

order that this pressure head 2a may-.cooperate withjtheip laten 22' when compressing the artificially ozen particles of'water into. a cake of ice. Theice cake is adapted to be discharged from one side of the stand pipe through a suitable opening 25, the latter being normally-closed in'the operation ofthe apparatus by a suitablev door or gate valve,

and positioned opposite to this opening 1s a movable member; 26, the latter being shiftable at the proper time into the path of the cake of ice, for the purpose of deflecting the ice cake throulgrh opening 25 and discharging saidice cake om the stand pipe. r

The mode of procedure is as follows:'- The exhauster 10 is set into operation; the

cooling agents are caused to circulate through the coils 17, 18 and through the dehydrator, and water is supplied to sprayer 14. The air blown by thefan is cooled to the required temperature at or below the freezing point by circulating through tank 16, the air being supplied to the distributing chamber 11 and flowing uniformly into the lower part of eongealing chamber 6. The air at the required temperature and under suitable pressure flows upwardly through exhauster. The air is thus used repeatedly, and when the dehydrator 19 is employed the excess moisture is condensed from .the air before the cool air is returned to the-congealing chamber by the operation of the exthe cooling chamber, the falling drops of of cool air, thereby resulting in freezingthe particles of wateras they fall through the tower. The water is frozen rapidly and economically so as to result in artificially chamber 7 at the base of the tower. ,At 'the proper time pressure head 24 is thrustacross the stand pipe between chambers 7 and 21. Deflector 26 being in position in alinement with the stand pipe, and opening 25 being closed, the next step of the mode of prothe artificially ozen hail. The latter is supplied by chamber 7 to the mold or compression chamber by the operation of withrawing pressure head 24 until the compression chamber has received the desired quansure head having been placed in position again, the hydraulic press is operated for the purpose of operating platen 22, whereby 26 is subjected to compression for the purpose of solidifying the hail into a cake of ice. A certain quantity of water may be ber, and the'tem-perature of this mold. or compression chamber may be kept below frozen hail is compressed under" powerful pressure into a cake of ice the water will posed to the low temperature of the mold or a solid cake of ice. The door or gate valve is now adjusted to open the opening 25 and deflector 26 is moved into a position across the stand pipe. The platen 22 is raised by the action of the h draulic press in a manner to bringthe ca e of compressed ice into contact with the deflector 26, the latter ofi'ering resistance to the upward movement of ing 25, thereby discharging or ejecting the chamber 6 and is returned by pipe 9 to the.

hauster. The water falls by gravity throughwater meeting the upwardly flowing current frozen hail, the latter accumulating within.

supplied to the mold or-compressioncham freezing. point, so that when the artificially also be subjected to pressure and beex compressionchamber, whereby there results the cake of ice and forcing it through .opence dure is to com ress a certain quantity of a tity of the artificiall frozen hail. The presthe artificially frozen hail within chamber I ice from the stand pipe. The platen 22' is lowered, opening 25 is closed, e ector 26 returned to normal position and pressure head 24: is moved across the space between the chambers 7, 21, to restore the compression means .into position to'receive another charge of material from the tower, but durmg these operations of the compressing mechanism, cold air is supplied to the tower and the water is sprayed within the air so. as to carry on the freezing of the water continuously.

While I described my invention as adapted for freezing water when sprayed into a counter current of air, it will be manifest that the process ,may be used for freezing liquids other than water. It will be noted that the liquid material to be frozen is in a finely divided condition by spraying it directly into a long column of cold air, and that the drops or particles of liquid material are individually enveloped by the air at a freezing temperature as such drops fall through the chamber of the tower. The liquid material being sprayed into the air at the top part of the tower, it is manifest that such liquid falls from such a height or travels for. such a distance through the freezing atmosphere as to secure congelation of the liquid drops and result in hard icy granules or pellets. These are collected subsequent to the freezing of the liquid material within the chamber at the bottom of the tower, be-

low the point at which the air is supplied,

thereto. The process enables ice to be produce d rapidly and economically for the reason that the liquid material being discharged in a finely dividedor sprayed condition directly into the long upwardly moving .current of cold air is quickly converted into ice granules orpellets, the separate drops being .ature' of the air to a freezing point an to enveloped by theair as they fall through the freezing atmos here and the freezing of the drops being e ected while suspended in the air. This results in an almost instantaneous conversion of the liquid material into the ice, in which respectthe process. is more rapid than. other processes in some of which the freezing operation is carried on with a mass or layer of ice interposed between .the re: frigerating agent and the liquid to be frozen,

mg chamber, and spraylng thematerial to A further advantage is that the resulting ice and returned to the tower in order to utilize theair repeatedly and to attain economy of.

operation. When the apparatus is first started, the blower is set into action to ex haust air from the top of the tower and to blow it into the bottomthereof, the air .circulating into contact withthe refrigerating coils Q This operation is continued fora length of time suflicient to lower the tem 'erbecome cold. The temperature of the air may be 32 Fahrenheit, but it is, preferably, at or aboutv 22 Fahrenheit, or at a temperature below those named. Now, by the operation of the blower the air is circulated into contact with the freezing coils and through the'tower, the operation being continuous, as a result of which the cold air is usedrepeatedly. The air from the tower is in a relatively cold condition, and circulates into contact with: the coils, so that the heat pres ent in the air will be taken up by the contact of'the air with such coils.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim asnew, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is y 1. In the art of producing ice cakes, the

process which consists in circulating a current of air upwardly through a chamber, the temperature of the airbeing at or below the freezino point, discharging water into the upwar ly flowing current of air, whereby the water is congealed as it falls by gravity through the current of cold air, collecting and drawing off from said chamber a predetermined quantity of the frozen particles, and then subjecting said quantity of frozen particles to pressure, thereby resulting in a solid cake of ice.

2. In the art of producing ice cakes, the process which consists in circulating in an upward direction and through a chamber a currentof air the temperature of which is substantially at or below the freezing point, spraying water into the upwardly flowing ticles, and then subjecting certain quantities of the frozenparticles to compression for solidifying the same into ice cakes.

3. In the art of refrigeration, the process which consists in passin water in a finely divided form downward y through an upwardly moving'long column of cold air, whereby'th'e articles ofvwater are congealed while suspen ed in the air and produce icy pellets or granules.

1t.- Inthe artof refrigeration, the process which, consists in circulating a long column of (gaseous fluid at a freezingtemperature an m an upward direction through a treatbe frozen in a finely divided condition downwardly into said long column of gaseous fluid, said divided material passing through thegaseous fluid for such a distance as to result in the congelation of the material into icy pellets or: granules, and subsequently formlng into a mass the icy pellets or gran-' ules. l a

5.- Inthe art of refrigeration, the process which consists in circulating a long column of' cold air through a treatin chamber, dis

chargingwa-ter in a'finely divided condition I downwardly into suchlong column of cold In testimony whereof I have signed my air so as to result in icy pellets 0r granules name to this specification in the presence of 10 ulrlhile suffpended in tlie 1cold air, conducting two subscribing Witnesses.

te air owin out 0 tie treatin chamber into contact with cold surfaces, reti irning the WILLIALI OSBORNE cold air back to the treating chamber, and Witnesses:

collecting the icy pellets 0r granules in a H. T. BERNHARD,

chamber separate from the treating chamber. J As. H. GRIFFIN. 

